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This view looks south-west along the canal past the last lock, No 16, Hills and Partridges Lock, to Park Street Bridge. (Hills and Partridges works have now long gone.)

The network of canals developed mainly in the 18th century before the arrival of the railway.

When the Oxford Canal finally reached Oxford in 1790, the city bells were rung to celebrate the arrival of the first barges loaded with coal from Coventry.

Though it passes through an industrial landscape, this canal has many quiet rural stretches where the narrow boats chug along under a dense canopy of green.

The canal was still busy, with a barge taking coal loaded into a series of 'Tom Puddings' - short containers that can be coupled together in any length.

We are looking west, with the Great Wharf of the Basingstoke Canal on the left.

This short, 2-mile canal was opened in 1773, and is an extension of the River Ure. In this view of the stone-walled canal basin we see the cathedral rising over the roofs, and the old arched bridge.

Two steamers head for the tidal lock at Eastham on their way out of the Manchester Ship Canal.

The Basingstoke Canal, opened in 1794, was in decay in the 1950s, but it has been restored to reopen in 1991.

The GWR had just taken over the running of the canal and had set up a bridge-building section specifically for canal work.

The Stroudwater Canal was built between 1775 and 1779.

Originally, originally Warrington's promoters of the canal had ambitious plans for a Warrington dock, but this failed to materialise.

The Wyrley and Essington Canal recalls an earlier development boom, when Britain was gripped by canal fever. Opened in 1797, it is now known affectionately as the Curly Wyrley.

In this picture we see the Manchester Ship Canal with the Mersey immediately beyond it.

Solid evidence of Victorian endeavour and values, Stephenson's great viaduct carries the Liverpool/Manchester railway over the Sankey Canal.

This view is taken from the meadow beside the canal, the Aylesbury Arm of the Grand Union Canal, which opened in 1815. The meadow is now occupied by 1990s housing, Hilda Wharf.

From the foot of the Foxton flight of locks, the canal cuts through the classic late 18th-century enclosure landscape of straight hedges.

This decrepit-looking lock (now expertly restored) is part of Delph Ninelocks, a spectacular piece of canal engineering on Dudley No 1 Canal.

The Bridgewater canal, built between 1759-1776, was a key transport network of the early Industrial Revolution, linking Manchester to Runcorn and carrying freight and passengers.

This decrepit-looking lock (now expertly restored) is part of Delph Ninelocks, a spectacular piece of canal engineering on Dudley No 1 Canal.

The Bude Canal was something of an oddity. For its first 2 miles, it was a barge canal - as seen here. Then, freight was trans-shipped into small tubs with wheels.

The Lydney Canal in Gloucestershire was about a mile in length, and carried trade up to the mid 1970s.

The B & F route also relied on the Oxford Canal, agreeing to complete its route to the Thames if Grand Trunk built the Coventry section from Whittington to Fradley.

The course of the canal meant that a section of the L&NWR line to Liverpool via Warrington and Speke would have to be re-routed; this resulted in the building of Latchford Viaduct.